Peter Lawford Biography

Actor, Film Actor (1923–1984)

Actor Peter Lawford ran with the Rat Pack, married a Kennedy and was the last person to speak to Marilyn Monroe.

Synopsis

Peter Sidney Lawford was born on September 7, 1923, and began appearing in films at age 8. He achieved a certain level of fame and success with movies like Easter Parade (1948) and Royal Wedding (1950). He was best known for performing in Vegas with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. as part of the "Rat Pack." He also joined his "Rat Pack" peers in the film Ocean's Eleven (1960). Before his death on Christmas Eve in 1984, Lawford was also known as a notorious womanizer, having married several women including President John F. Kennedy's sister Patricia Kennedy.

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Early Life and Career

Actor Peter Sidney Ernest Lawford was born on September 7, 1923, in London, England. Lawford's father was a knighted World War I veteran who became an actor after he retired. Lawford's film debut was at age 8 in the British film Poor Old Bill (1931) followed by a role in Lord Jeff (1938). Lawford grew to be a handsome and suave young man, who was being groomed for stardom by MGM in the 1940s. Lawford was the first actor to kiss Elizabeth Taylor on camera, and the last to speak to Marilyn Monroe before she died. Lawford also organized the famous 1962 birthday party for John F. Kennedy in Madison Square Garden where Monroe sang "Happy Birthday" to the President.

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Film Career

Although never considered one of the most prominent actors of his time, his films included Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Easter Parade (1948), Little Women (1949), Royal Wedding (1950), It Should Happen to You (1954), Ocean's Eleven (1960), Pepe (1960), Sergeants Three (1962), The Longest Day (1962), Advise and Consent (1962), Harlow (1965), The April Fools (1969) and Body and Soul (1981).

Romantic Relationships

The debonair Lawford enjoyed a reputation as a jet-setting playboy and was a heavy drinker. In 1954, he married Patricia Kennedy, sister of then-Senator John F. Kennedy. The couple had four children, Chris, Sydney, Victoria and Robin. The two divorced in 1966 after Lawford admitted to having affairs. In 1971, he married Mary Rowan, the daughter of comedian Dan Rowan, but the marriage only lasted eight months. In 1975, he married Deborah Gould, and that marriage lasted only two months. In July 1984, he married Patricia Seaton after a nine-year courtship.

Personal Life and Death

Lawford was part of the famous Hollywood "Rat Pack," and performed with the group in Las Vegas and in films, including Ocean's Eleven and Sergeants Three. Lawford and Sinatra had a falling out in 1961 over brother-in-law Robert Kennedy's objections to Sinatra's alleged Mafia connections. The incident severed their friendship and the two men were never on good terms again.

In 1972, Lawford had surgery to remove a pancreatic tumor. By that time, he was in ill health as a result of long-time alcoholism, and he died on December 24, 1984 of cardiac arrest complicated by kidney and liver failure.

Fact Check

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